Eli Whitney

the American South quickly became the world’s leading cotton producer

a sense unity that remained unsaid, but was acted out daily.

The decades before the Civil War in the South, then, were not times of slow, simple tradition

the average cost of an enslaved male laborer likewise rose

skin color of those forced to work its fields

The two moved hand-in-hand

Some even sent their own agents to purchase cheap land at auction for the express purpose of selling it, sometimes the very next day, at double and triple the original value—a process known as “speculation.”

Few knew that the seven bales sitting in Liverpool that winter of 1785 would change the world.

millions of dollars changed hands.

A single bad crop could cost even most wealthy, landed planter his or her entire life

slavery became a way of life,

sucking up nutrients at a rate with which the soil could not compete

sending 6.5 million pounds of the luxurious long-staple blend to markets in Charleston, Liverpool, London, and New York.

The change was astonishing.

The explosion of available land in the fertile cotton belt brought new life to the South. By the end of the 1830s, “Petit Gulf” cotton had been perfected, distributed, and planted throughout the region.

a machine developed by Eli Whitney in 1794 for deseeding cotton—more easily than any other strain. It also grew tightly, producing more usable cotton than anyone had imagined to that point.

The discovery of Gossypium barbadense—often called “Petit Gulf” cotton—near Rodney, Mississippi, in 1820 changed the American and global cotton markets forever.

Music

Africans brought to the Americas the greatly varied cultures of their homelands, including folklore, language, music, and foodways

For the enslaved, understanding the language of European and American slave traders and plantation owners was necessary to understand the new world of Atlantic slavery that legally determined so many aspects of their lives from life to death.

Africans brought to the Americas the greatly varied cultures of their homelands, including folklore, language, music, and foodways.

So, whether he has two little or too much, his approach to the gin- house is always with fear and trembling.

The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning

attacked and killed a French diplomat

He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population.

have melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the westward, and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by the red men of the South and West by a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to land where their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual. Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our ancestors did or than our children are now doing? To better their condition in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was dea

enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way

What good man would prefer a country covered with forests

hailed with gratitude and joy.

cruel in this Government

have melted away to make room for the whites.

enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. I

he Indian is made discontented in his ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode?

We think of the ratification controversy as pitting Anti-Federalists against Federalists. Who were the Anti-Federalists? The traditional distinctions are largely unconvincing. Some scholars have emphasized wealth and poverty -- that is, rich people tended to support the Constitution and poor or working-class people tended to oppose it. That distinction breaks down, however, for there were many rich opponents of the Constitution (such as George Mason of Virginia) and the proposed document had many working-class supporters in cities such as Philadelphia and New York

Napoleón decided to reconquer the island and restore slavery

Haiti, known as Saint-Domingue before the revolution, was the richest colony in the Americas in 1789.

Who were the Anti-Federalists?

While not easy, this goal was far easier to achieve than the unanimous consent of the states required by Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation.

exercise that constituent power.

national political community; it helped to focus the American people's attention on the political component of their national identity.

all except Rhode Island,

Who were the Anti-Federalists?

Thus, when the Federal Convention dissolved on 17 September 1787, it sent the proposed Constitution and its accompanying resolutions to the Confederation Congress.

The delegates took even longer to decide on the form of the national executive branc

As creditors threatened to foreclose on their property

The potter hath power over his clay

Anti-Federalists” argued that without such a guarantee of specific rights, American citizens risked losing their personal liberty to the powerful federal government. The pro-ratification “Federalists,” on the other hand, argued that including a bill of rights was not only redundant but dangerous; it could limit future citizens from adding new rights.

critics of the Constitution organized to persuade voters in the different states to oppose it.

Shays’ Rebellion, generated intense national debate

Shaysites as rebels who wanted to rule the government through mob violence

Thomas Jefferson, thought “a little rebellion now and then” helped keep the country free

That November, Washington called his fellow citizens to celebrate with a day of thanksgiving, particularly for “the peaceable and rational manner”

  "As to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh.

The right of women to vote was not recognized by the United States until 1920, more than 144 years after the Declaration of Independence.

very liable to be broken;

retaining an absolute power over wives.

I cannot but laugh.

attention is not paid to the ladies,

new code

"This is rather too coarse a compliment, but you are so saucy, I won't blot it out

I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.

Before the evening was over, much of Hutchinson’s home and belongings had been destroyed.16

Dunmore began to convince some slave owners that a new independent nation might offer a surer protection for slaver

Slaves could now choose to run and risk their lives for possible freedom with the British army, or hope that the United States would live up to its ideals of liberty. 

Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation declaring martial law and offering freedom to “all indentured servants, Negros, and others” if they would leave their masters and join the British.

“may be publicly known,

Some women also took to the streets as part of more unruly mob actions, participating in grain riots, raids on the offices of royal officials, and demonstrations against the impressment of men into naval service. The agitation of so many helped elicit responses from both Britain and the colonial elites.

The colonial economy improved as the postwar recession receded

Declaratory Act, was left, in part, to save face and assert that Parliament still retained the right to tax the colonies.

The soldiers were tried in Boston and won acquittal, thanks, in part, to their defense attorney, John Adams.

Non-importation, and especially, non-consumption agreements changed colonists’ cultural relationship with the mother country. Committees of Inspection that monitored merchants and residents to make sure that no one broke the agreements.

Women, too, became involved to an unprecedented degree in resistance to the Townshend Acts.

By November 16, all of the original twelve stamp collectors had resigned, and by 1766, groups who called themselves the “Sons of Liberty” were formed in most of the colonies to direct and organize further popular resistance.

Violent riots broke out in Boston, during which crowds burned the appointed stamp distributor for Massachusetts, Andrew Oliver, in effigy and pulled a building he owned “down to the Ground in five minutes.”15

The Sugar Act of 1764 was an attempt to get merchants to pay an already-existing duty, but the Stamp Act created a new

“The colonists are entitled to as ample rights, liberties, and privileges as the subjects of the mother country are, and in some respects to more.”3

hey sought to eliminate Britain’s growing national debt by raising taxes and cutting spending on the colonies.

The most famous of the anti-Stamp Act resolutions were the “Virginia Resolves,” passed by the House of Burgesses on May 30, 1765,

The Seven Years’ War culminated nearly a half-century of war between Europe’s imperial powers

Eliot was a chemist, so perhaps we should take his criticisms with a grain of salt.

2014 study showed that test scores in science and math courses improved after professors replaced lecture time with “active learning” methods like group work

Behaviour of the traders towards our Women

worthy cannot bear to be disgraced without a fault

With respect to the Land I was not Consulted in it, if I was to deliver my Sentiments evil disposed People might impute it to Motives very different from those which actuate me,

the English went they caused disturbances for they lived under no Government and paid no respect either to Wisdom or Station.

colonies are governed

change

defending their Liberties, as they call them.

commander of the British North American forces, arrived in New York City on July 22, 1756

would continue to employ this strategy to consolidate their power in North America

settled for peace.

influential in its development.

exposed divisions within the newly expanded empire, including language, national affiliation, and religious views.

invasion, a massive coalition of France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden attacked Prussia and the few German states allied with Prussia

The French defeated Britain’s German allies and forced them to surrender after the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757.

French seemed to easily defeat British attacks,

Seven Years War was tremendously expensive and precipitated imperial reforms on taxation, commerce, and politics

Defiant slaves could legally be beaten, branded, mutilated, even castrated.

By 1750, slavery was legal in every North American English colony, b

egislative or supreme authority cannot assume to itself a power to rule by extemporary arbitrary decrees

men when they enter into society give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of Nature into the hands of the society,

Thirdly, in the state of Nature there often wants power to back and support the sentence when right, and to give it due execution.

it made me tremble to see the Sight

– It pleased God to bring on my Convictions more and more, and I was loaded with guilt of Sin, I saw I was undone for ever; I carried Such a weight of Sin in my breast or mind, that it seemed to me as I should sink into the ground every step; and I kept all to my self as much as I could;

Poor me

I was possesst with a notion that if I had it I would die and goe right to hell,

he seeks out and is willing to join in society with others who are already united

But government, into whosesoever hands it is put, being as I have before shown, entrusted with this condition, and for this end, that men might have and secure their properties, the prince or senate, however it may have power to make laws for the regulating of property between the subjects one amongst another,

power to punish the crimes committed against that law

every man his equal

equal to the greatest and subject to nobody

Whitefield was a former actor with a dramatic style of preaching and a simple message.

only elite members of society eligible to serve in elected positions

. One of the major differences between modern politics and colonial political culture was the lack of distinct, stable, political parties. The most common disagreemen

peace and prosperity

The Seven Years’ War pushed the thirteen American colonies closer together politically and culturally than ever before.

preparation for war

urged greater Atlantic trade

This gave the British a larger empire than they could control, which contributed to tensions leading to revolution.

The Seven Years’ War ended with the peace treaties of Paris in 1762 and Hubertusburg in 1763. The British received much of Canada and North America from the French, while the Prussians retained the important province of Silesia.

Raiding parties would destroy houses and burn crops, but they would also take captives

wives asserted more control over their own bodies.

more people to marry earlier in life

women’s role in the family became more complicated

a group of about 80 slaves set out for Spanish Florida under a banner that read “Liberty!,” burning plantations and killing at least 20 white settlers as they marched.

idea that government was put in place by the people

many of these assemblies saw it as their duty to check the power of the governor and ensure that he did not take too much power within colonial government.

charter colonies had the most complex system of government, formed by political corporations or interest groups who drew up a charter that clearly delineated powers between executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government.

These crown governors could veto any decision made by the legislative assemblies in the provincial colonies.

cared for the poor in their communities

colonial government also had more power in a variety of areas.

sizeable free black community that made up about 10% of the city’s population

South Carolina also banned the freeing of slaves unless the freed slave left the colony.

Virginia planters used the law to maximize the profitability of their slaves and closely regulate every aspect of their daily lives.

By 1750, slavery was legal in every North American English colony,

The most common disagreement in colonial politics was between the elected assemblies and the royal governor. Generally, the various colonial legislatures were divided int

In 1754 a force of British colonists and Native American allies, led by young George Washington, attacked and killed a French diplomat. This incident led to a war,

Virginia, the oldest of the English mainland colonies, imported its first slaves in 1619

chains and fettered two together.

Africans still resisted:

violently affected by the seasickness than the Europeans

and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating.

us arm'd, they fell in crouds and parcels on our men, upon the deck unawares, and stabbed one of the stoutest of us all, who receiv'd fourteen or fifteen wounds of their knives, and so expir'd. Next they assaulted our boatswain, and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

in, and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

transatlantic slave trade provided such a workforce.

New laws gave legal sanction to the enslavement of people of African descent for life.

desperation that drove some slaves to suicide

Wars offered the most common means for colonists to acquire Native American slaves

Events across the ocean continued to influence the lives of American colonists. Civil war, religious conflict, and nation building transformed seventeenth-century Britain and remade societies on both sides of the ocean

Native Americans saw fledgling settlements turned into unstoppable beachheads of vast new populations that increasingly monopolized resources and remade the land into something else entirely. 

Slave marriages were not recognized in colonial law. Some enslaved men and women married “abroad”; that is, they married individuals who were not owned by the same master and did not live on the same plantation. These husbands and wives had to travel miles at a time, typically only once a week on Sundays, to visit their spouses. Legal or religious authority did not protect these marriages, and masters could refuse to let their slaves visit a spouse, or even sell a slave to a new master hundreds of miles away from their spouse and children.

Thomas Phillips

Puritans

Bacon’s Rebellion

Slavery was particularly troublesome for some pacifist Quakers of Pennsylvania on the grounds that it required violence

Persistently independent and with republican sympathies, the settlers refused a governor and instead elected a president and council

housands of other Indians fled the region or were sold into slavery

Native American slaves died quickly, mostly from disease, but others were murdered or died from starvation. The demands of growing plantation economies required a more reliable labor force

educated a substantial number of slaves

In the Oliners’ study of Germans who helped rescue Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, one of the strongest predictors of this inspiring behavior was the individual’s memory of growing up in a family that prioritized compassion and altruism.

you are banished from out of our jurisdiction

covenant of grace

covenant of works

a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God

three years ago we were all in peace.

f white and black acting together to challenge authority

barbarous enemy

For having protected, favored, and emboldened the Indians

divide and separate us who have suffered by their oppressions.

That in whatsoever place, house, or ship, any of the said persons shall reside, be hid, or protected, we declare the owners, masters, or inhabitants of the said places to be confederates and traitors

cries of blood

Bacon and his supporters rose up and plundered the elite’s estates and slaughtered nearby Indians.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God said, Let there be light: 2 Cor. 4.6 and there was light

In contrast, England appointed Virginia's governor, while in Maryland, the governor was appointed by the Calvert family, which owned the colony.

Puritan had made a covenant with God to establish a truly Christian community

When God gives us a special commission He wants it strictly observed in every article....

etween God and man, ministers and congregations, magistrates and members of their community, and men and their families--were envisioned in terms of a covenant or contract which rested on consent and mutual responsibilities.

God Almighty in His most holy and wise providence hath so disposed of the Condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection.

God of Israel

the Puritan had made a covenant with God to establish a truly Christian community,

Puritan

came unarmed into our houses, without bows or arrows, or other weapons, with deer, turkeys, fish, furs, and other provisions to sell and truck with us for glass, beads, and other trifle

not sparing either age or sex, man, women or child; so sudden in their cruel execution that few or none discerned the weapon or blow that brought them to destruction....

the colonists discovered that Virginia was an ideal place to cultivate tobacco,

Our hands, which before were tied with gentleness and fair usage, are now set at liberty by the treacherous violence of the savages.

And not being content with taking away life alone, they fell after again upon the dead, making, as well as they could, a fresh murder, defacing, dragging, and mangling the dead carcasses into many pieces, and carrying away some parts in derision

Yea, such was the treacherous dissimulation of that people who then had contrived our destruction

This comprehensive collection of historic texts

The New England climate and soil made large-scale plantation agriculture impractical, so the system of large landholders using masses of slaves or indentured servants to grow labor-intensive crops never took hold.

He launched a surprise attack and in a single day (March 22, 1622) killed 347 colonists, or one-fourth of all the colonists in Virginia.

The reliance on new imports of slaves increased the likelihood of resistance, however, and escaped slaves managed to create several free settlements, called quilombos.

Spanish missionaries brought Indians into enclosed missions, whereas Jesuits more often lived with or alongside Indian groups.